'Arrow' Boss: Laurel's Reaction to the Oliver Bombshell Is 'Surprising'

Cate Cameron/The CW

"Arrow"

One more person is in the know of Oliver Queen's secret life as the hood, a fact executive producer Andrew Kreisberg says shifts Laurel's world view immensely.

The ball is in Laurel Lance's (Katie Cassidy) court.

Last we left off on The CW comic-book drama, Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) dropped an Arrow bombshell, revealing to Laurel that her former lover/friend Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) is actually the Arrow -- a calculated move on his part to weaken Oliver's world.

"Laurel obviously has had a very rough year. When Slade told Laurel, he thought that that was going to be yet another devastating death charge into Oliver's life," executive producer Andrew Kreisberg said.

But life is more complicated than that and Laurel's reaction to the news isn't as simple as Slade may have hoped.

"I think that Laurel's reaction to finding out the news -- for one, not just taking it at face value, but being smart about it -- her emotional reaction to the news is surprising. I think most people assume she's going to react one way," Kreisberg said, alluding to her past days spent popping pills and drinking excessively. "That she reacts in a different way is great."

Kreisberg compared Laurel's entry into Oliver's Arrow universe to that of Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell), who found out about his best friend's vigilante life in season one.

"Once he knew, it changed his character so much," Kreisberg said. "There was so much more you could write for him and the way he looked at everything in the world. Every scene suddenly became supercharged with him, even if it was a small scene that didn't really have anything to do with the main plot."

"With Laurel, now that she knows, whatever she's doing, whenever she's in a scene with somebody, her world view has shifted and it's different. Katie has really risen to it and it's really exciting to see how it plays out," he added.